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The Calendar
The Calendar: Winter: 1st Month (December analog): Ikkelgris - A word curiously borrowed from the Orcs, and notable in that it has over a dozen correct pronunciations, including several that can be said with one's teeth chattering. 2nd Month (January analog): Welsurn - This month is named after an archaic word from a dated version of the common tongue, which was frequently used in older poetry to note that an event was taking place in the middle of winter and that everything was frozen. 3rd Month (February analog): Eskomer - Named in honor of an ancient king, although histories have blurred to the point that it's arguable about what he was the king of, or indeed if he existed at all. Spring: 1st Month (March analog): Lago - A word from Old Tiric that describes a short-lived body of water resulting from Spring thaws. 2nd Month (April analog): Savrune - Another ancient monarch, although the existence of this Empress is documented much more accurately. Savrune is also the name of a potent whiskey, leading to all of the obvious puns. 3rd Month (May analog): Tohembar - A bastardization of a word out of the Driftfolk language that caught on as sea-based exploration began to become a reality. The original word to'tember generally means scuttling some ships to supply or repair the rest. Summer: 1st Month (June analog): Bailance - a word so old that it's etymology cannot be traced all the way back to its creation. Possibly left over from the Ancients. 2nd Month (July analog): Firothe - Named for a prince of one of the Old Kingdoms. A very old myth tells the story of how he briefly brought a piece of the sun to his people in order to stop a famine, defeat an enemy army, solve a riddle, or trick an evil spirit out of his throne, depending on which version of the myth you're listening to. 3rd Month (August analog): Homora - Named for a staple crop which, long ago, effectively kept the people of several subcontinents from starvation during an extremely bad blight/winter combination. The fruit is relatively tasteless and has less nutritional value than most other foods, but it takes forever to go bad and can be grown and harvested in a huge range of temperatures and weather conditions. Homora rinds are extremely cheap, so the poor and homeless of most major cities typically have it as a large part of their diet. Autumn: 1st Month (September analog): Javori - The royal astronomer from one of the Old Kingdoms, credited with the invention of the sextant which ultimately made colonization of other continents possible. 2nd Month (October analog): Amber's Fall - rather unoriginally named after the grain harvest. 3rd Month (November analog): Moonharvest - most would say that this month was named after a legendary Harvest Moon of some sort. They would be wrong, however, as the month is actually named after the first successful smelting of moonsteel. Special Days The year has 365 days, and each of the 12 months has 30 days, which means that the combined days of all of the months do not account for all the days in the year. Five days lie outside any month. In order, they are: Other Story Elements may fill in the special days here. The Creator: The calendar itself is called the Javian calendar, named after Javi (sister to the aforementioned Javori) - a princess of the Old Kingdoms who grew bored with her sheltered life and sought refuge in her brother's work of mathematics and astronomy. She was third in line for the throne, but a sequence of unlikely and highly unfortunate events made her the queen, and one of her actions during her reign was to standardize the calendar across all of her territories. It caught on as aspects of the kingdom's culture spread, and it was eventually adopted everywhere humans are found. Other Calendars Nonhuman cultures are familiar with the Javian calendar as a matter of convenience, since humans are the most populous race in the world, but other calendars do exist. They simply aren't in common use in most places. Variance Despite some claims by astronomers looking for temporary academic glory, there is no variance or inaccuracy in the number of days each year - a year is exactly 365 days long.